DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson made the announcement, speaking of his challenge "to balance work on the new against the already shipped, prioritizing the amount of energy spent on the known franchises and the time spent on developing something entirely new."

"While we'll continue supporting Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and previous games, it's time to look ahead to the next giant leap for DICE--the release of Battlefield 3," he wrote. "Our goal is crystal clear: we're going to build the best Battlefield game ever, and we'll do whatever it takes to make this the biggest launch in DICE's history."

Battlefield 1943 was released for download on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in July 2009. The PC edition was due to follow in September 2009 but was then delayed into the first quarter of 2010 to, in the words of producer Gordon Van Dyke, "ensure the features and functionality that PC players have come to expect from Battlefield on PC are not missing." In March 2010, it was promised "soon" but the game clearly missed that mark and neither DICE nor publisher EA has had much to say about it since.

BC2's Onslaught DLC was at least never officially confirmed for PC, saving PC gamers a little crushing disappointment, though today's announcement makes clear that it was planned. DICE had expressed concern about about how an optional DLC release would impact upon the dedicated server-driven environment of PC gaming. Onslaught launched for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in June 2010.

If it'll help raise your crushed hopes, though, Battlefield 3 lead designer David Goldfarb is stirring up talk of Battlefield 3 news tomorrow on Twitter. "Trend this shit. Tomorrow. #BF3," he wrote.

It's already known that BF3 will be on show at an event on March 1, during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Perhaps we'll be getting a little peek before then too.